Trump Appointee and Ex-Prosecutor to Hear DOJ’s Judges Lawsuit

A President Donald Trump appointee who prosecuted white supremacists over a deadly Charlottesville rally and had the backing of Democratic senators will preside over a Justice Department lawsuit against all the federal district judges in Maryland.

US District Judge Thomas Cullen in Roanoke was assigned on Wednesday the high-profile litigation against the US trial judges over their standing order that blocked the immediate deportation of detained persons who file a habeas petition. The case was filed by the Trump Justice Department last week in the Maryland federal trial court, but government lawyers asked that it be transferred to another judge within the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

The assignment gives Cullen the task of mediating an unprecedented court fight between his current colleagues on the judiciary and his former ones at the Justice Department. It appears to be his first high-profile court cases since he joined the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia in 2020, when the Senate confirmed him with a 79-19 vote.

Timothy Heaphy, a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher who was previously served as US attorney for that district, said Cullen is a reasonable, moderate Republican.

“He’s a good choice for a hard case,” said Heaphy, who has led investigations into the Charlottesville rally and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Trump had previously nominated Cullen to serve as US attorney for the Western Virginia district, a role he held from 2018 until his confirmation to the federal bench.

While serving as a top federal prosecutor, Cullen worked on cases tied to the deadly “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. He presented closing arguments at the sentencing hearing of James Fields, a white supremacist who drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors in Charlottesville, killing Heather Heyer and injuring others. A federal judge handed down a life sentence to Fields.

Cullen also worked on the prosecution of members of a militant white supremacist group called the “Rise Above Movement,” who in 2017 traveled from California to attend the violent rally in Charlottesville. Those defendants pleaded guilty to violations of the federal Anti-Riots statute for attacks on counter-protesters, following a torch-lit march on the University of Virginia campus.

“There’s no question, of all the cases I’ve been fortunate enough to work on in my career that this was the most rewarding and, for a lot of reasons, the most important,” Cullen said at his confirmation hearing, about the Charlottesville prosecutions.

Cullen also has familial ties to Virginia Republicans. His father Richard Cullen is currently serving as counselor to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Earlier, Richard Cullen was appointed by former Gov. George Allen (R) to serve as the state’s attorney general, and was also tapped by President George H.W. Bush as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Trump Appointee

The litigation against the Maryland judges comes after the Trump administration has lashed out at judges who have ruled against its policies. Trump’s allies in Congress have pushed to impeach some judges who have ruled against the administration, spurring a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts against the use of impeachment instead of appealing unfavorable decisions.

Heaphy said that Thomas Cullen won’t care if he faces attacks from the president, and won’t be affected by outside criticism. He said the judge “is somebody who’ll stand up for what’s right and for judicial integrity.”

In his questionnaire to the Senate, Cullen said he was first contacted by the White House counsel’s office in May 2019, asking if he’d be interested in the judgeship. He interviewed with White House and Justice Department staffers, and then was later interviewed by Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine’s screening committee and an evaluating committee from the Virginia state bar.

In written answers to senators during his confirmation process, Cullen was asked to weigh in on attacks by Trump on the judiciary. Cullen said that the courts’ independence “is fundamental to our rule of law.”

“If confirmed, I will faithfully fulfill my oath without fear or favor,” he said, adding that it would be “inappropriate for me to comment on the appropriateness of comments made by any political actor.”

In response to another question about the executive branch potentially ignoring court orders, Cullen said if a party doesn’t follow them, “the opposing party may seek injunctive relief or other remedies from the court to enforce that order.”